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Why do people have children if they are not going to be their #1 priority? And we wonder why our youth have so many issues. It's not just absent fathers, it's mothers who have absolutely no business having children they do not intend to love & nurture.

Evolving is a term that implies progressing. Cave men took better care of their kids than many "parents" do today. If what's going on today is the results of evolving I wish we would regress about 50 years.

You do not leave your children alone PERIOD! Not in the car alone for you to run into a convenience store, not to run down the street, NOT to go party, donate blood, plasma, or any other stupid reason. Take them with you OR STAY HOME if you do not have an appropriate child caretaker/babysitter. When will people ever learn this lesson?

Parents are suppose to protect their children from harm to the best of their ability. If you cannot do this ... use birth control until you are repsonsible enough or get yourself fixed.

I have to agree with seenitB4. What this woman did was horrible. But did Dad abandon and neglect the kids long before Mom too? It takes two parents to make and raise a child. All too often, one is left to do it all and yet there is no criminal charge for the other parent. If that one remaining parent does the unspeakable, he or she is charged. I believe anyone who has a child and abandons or neglects it, whether physically, financially or emotionally is wrong. Unfortunately, the law doesn't punish immorality. If it did, we would likely see less cases like this where a parent makes horrible choices to put their children at risk. If nothing else mother and father would police each other and have a vested interest, even if for no other reason then to avoid criminal punishment, to ensure children are not placed in harms way.

Regardless of whether the father is present or absent, it is about personal responsibility. Everything else is an excuse which simply means, if I or you can come up with one that is good enough, I'm off the hook for my bad decisions . No growth in that plan; just stuck in a vicious cycle handed down generationally.

I agree Willow, I don't care who is or is not in the picture. At that time SHE was responsible for those kids and she let them down. She's 100% at fault. They could have been killed. Thank God for the observant neighbors who saved these little angels. If the father didn't do his part, thats a different story and a different case for sterilization but has nothing to do with her negligence. I agree with you, I'm sick of all the excuses for irresponsibility. Their so called compassion has crippled people instead of helped them. Sad thing is they are too stupid to see it and it will never change.

I apologize if what I wrote was construed as an excuse for her inexcusable behavior. I was just expressing an opinion that if the most common form of child neglect and abandonment today was punishable by law, maybe we would see more children with two active parents and a decrease in some of these awful cases where a parent does do stupid, dangerous and inexcusable stuff like this.

I do agree with SeenIt and Martinez about the father and here is the problem and why it continues and one example of what needs to be done:

If the unwed mother puts the name of the father on the birth certificate and applies for government assistance the government entity goes after the father for child support, etc. That sounds like the solution right? #1 the mother (and a lot of time the father) wants that assistance. And/or they have no idea who the father is. What is wrong is more with the SYSTEM that allows this to continue.

Instead of continuously providing for unwed mothers they need to require them to list a father, the government will provide the FIRST DNA test for paternity to prove that person is the biological father BUT if not the father the mother has to reimburse for the DNA test (even if by volunteer work until that debt is paid back). The DNA tests after that have to be paid for by the mother or she does not get assistance!

Once BOTH parents are held accountable for their creation of a child (whether wanted or not) then they will stop reproducing or pay the consequences for their actions.

Am I heartless about children? No, I do not think any child should be punished for the mistakes of their parents. AND ... I have been there!

I have a 29 year old that I had 3 months prior to my 17th birthday. I have NEVER been on assistance of any kind. My family did what families are suppose to do and came together to help out their family member (ME) in any way they could. And WHEN was my 2nd child born? Nine years later when I was 25 years old! Lesson learned.

father, dad, papa, padre do not apply. References to where are the fathers in this culture is an insult to every real "stand up guy" who makes a home for his offspring. Thanks to our "omnipotent government", male family providers are not a necessary requirement in the village mentality.

My guess is that Mom was not donating plasma for the good of society - she was getting paid to donate. With apparently no means of support, I would also guess a single mother, with no nearby family. Donating plasma is not an emergency issue. I agree with Karen, that both parents need to be held accountable. But until the culture changes, there needs to be mandatory birth control by anyone accepting public assistance. Until there is a male implantable developed, this falls on the females. We cannot mandate no sex, but we should be able to mandate, no additional children being brought into the mix. And I'm not being heartless to kids either, since I have one of my own, that I am extremely proud of, but far too many children are born into situations that they had no say in. Dr. Edell brought up yesterday, that child abuse is up, and it appears to be following the decline of the economy. Sad.

I have 2 sons, ages 40 and 42. Had them when I was in my 20', post college. They were good kids, but it got to a point that babysitters were not in control. We trusted those boys and started lesving them alone. Now the oldest was beyond the age when I first started babysitting. Never, ever had another problem. Raise them right, give them responsibilities, and enjoy the results. Oh wait. I forgot the key ingredient: choose your spouse and the other parent of your offspring wisely.

where the father is or was. Would he have prevented this? You don't know.
Yes, both parents should be held responsible for a child but this is reality, fathers AND mothers abandon their kids.
Who to give kids to? To whomever is responsible enough to take care of them until matter is resolved. Just because the woman is irresponsible doesn't make the family so.

Absolutely, a two parent family is ideal, particularly when those parents are grounded in healthy values. A better "system", again ideal.

The problem is none of us live in the "ideal"; we all live in our own realities. For this reason, the only true solution is taking personal responsibilty for our own choices. We have no control or power over others. Blaming others keeps us victims, taking responsibility enables us to become victorious. Someone else doesn't have the power to determine my success or happiness unless I hand it over to them.

dear seenitb4,
"day's babbies daddie is barry obama" heeze da one payin all da bills with da welfare and ebt" maybe she needed to sell plasma because her ebt ran out. the children need to be taken away and placed in foster care with a stable family...she will get a slap on the wrist, a finger wagging and her children will be given back to her

She is guilty of exercising bad judgment and if she had the benefit of hindsight, which none of us do, I'm sure she would choose differently. This woman loves her children as much, if not moreso, than many of us love ours. She was probably donating plasma to help earn enough money to put toward paying that electric bill which may have been cut-off the same day for all we know. We've all made mistakes in life and although this is a serious one, I'm 110% positive she has learned from it. In a so-called Judeo-Christian society which preaches forgiveness it is utterly disheartening to see so many practice otherwise. We shouldn't always be so quick to pass judgment on someone we don't know or on a circumstance we may never have been in. She wasn't out at 2a.m. partying or whatever, she's a single-parent, obviously struggling to provide for 2 beautiful children. She is hurt more by this I'm sure more than any of us and having her in jail for any extended amount of time is detrimental to the children because she is still their mother and she loves them and they love her. She has no history of negligence or abusive behavior toward her children and I pray they are returned to her in due time and they can all move on past this terrible episode. We should ALL pray for the best in this situation and not be so quick to condemn.